NEW YORK—With the crime-ridden days of the 1970s and ‘80s a distant memory, people from around the world are once again flocking to work in the Big Apple.
This has led to a new problem—where can the new city dwellers sleep?
The city’s population is approximately 8.2 million people—and growing. In addition, people are starting families later. According to data from the Center for Disease Control, the average age of women giving birth to their first child was 26.8 in New York state in 2006, compared to 22.5 in 1970.
This has bred a higher demand for one- and two-person homes, a demand that is not even close to being met by the supply.
“Today there are about 1.8 million one- and two-person households in our city, but there are only about 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said from the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture Monday. “The result is not only a housing crunch that has costly consequences, but also leads to illegally subdivided apartments.”
